The “Blackfish Effect” Marks a Major Moral Uprising

If SeaWorld is the new Sun City, it’s time to understand the so-called “Blackfish Effect.” The oddly remarkable confluence of Nelson Mandela’s death with the explosive exodus of world-famous bands from SeaWorld’s annual music festival, “confirms that it’s not too early to link what has become known as ‘the Blackfish Effect’ to a moral uprising akin to the one that eventually overthrew apartheid.” (see Part 1)

[This, “digital harassment” comment, ironically, from a company that—beyond its enslavement of massively intelligent and social mammals—routinely teaches mature male killer whales to roll over, eject their penises, masturbate them, and collect sperm for their captive breeding program. Highly related animals end up bred to one another, in a systemic and extreme inbreeding situation. And see Shamu the Slut]

This last quote from SeaWorld, by the way, comes from an interview on CBS This Morning on December 18, that begins, “The public relations crisis is growing this morning at one of America’s best known aquatic theme parks…”

Public relations crisis? Or Blackfish Effect?

[BREAKING: This just in: In a remarkable testament to the Blackfish Effect, as this blog went live, SeaWorld place full-paged ads in newspapers around the country (on December 20), in an attempt to counter the backlash. Mo Brock, quickly slammed those ads calling them an "insult to both human and orca." While the Orca Project posted an Open Letter BACK to SeaWorld from Amy Costanza, an attorney and former SeaWorld visitor, denouncing SeaWorld's assertions. By December 22, former SeaWorld trainer's countered SeaWorld's ad claims decisively, thanks to Elizabeth Batt at Digital Journal. Further, the Oceanic Preservation Society (the filmmakers of the Academy Award winning documentary The Cove), has also just issued an Open Letter in response to the ads that SeaWorld ran. The letter begins: "Inaccurate reports from SeaWorld recently placed in full-page advertisements in major newspapers included a series of mistruths about the quality of life of the animals in its care."]

Because what’s happening here has far more to do with fact than opinions, and what SeaWorld fails to see is that the opinions of the American public are changing fast because they are getting the facts: facts that become intolerable against the love and reverence so many people have for the majestic beings that are arguably more highly evolved than humans, have far tighter family bonds, forage for wild food over dozens or hundreds of miles, and who are regularly and systemically brutalized by captivity no matter how “healthy” or “educational” SeaWorld paints their “sea” worlds of concrete.

David Kirby recently considered whether SeaWorld succeeds at its professed mission to educate people about killer whales, and had this to say:

“I went to SeaWorld several times to research my book, and attended both the "Believe" and "One Ocean" Shamu shows, where I heard virtually nothing that would educate people about killer whales in the wild, how long they live, their social bonds, their hunting patterns, and ways to conserve their threatened natural habitats.

Instead, I "learned" that whales like blaring music, roaring crowds, back-flips and French kissing. When I left, instead of hearing people talk about saving wild whales, they were talking about the ‘Shamu whales.’ That's bad education, which is worse than no education at all.”

Meanwhile, Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, according to the Orlando Weekly says, "she wasn’t a marine mammal activist before making the film, (and) calls the trend encouraging. ‘If you tell people the truth, they’ll change the way they do things,’ she says. ‘They’ll make powerful and dignified decisions.’”

Unless SeaWorld quickly addresses those facts the company will continue its dramatic slide. NASDAQ reported, also on December 18, that Blackstone subsidiaries dumped the bulk of their SeaWorld stock. Blackstone was the main shareholder of SeaWorld stock. Blackstone, it seems, is taking a lesson from the bands and is, likewise, jumping ship. Which is a good business decision when you realize that Blackfish just went public: on December 12 Netflix released Blackfish via the streaming option to its 30+ million viewers. Still, SeaWorld insists that all is well with their world even as they went to Groupon on December 19, offering discount tickets in an attempt to tempt fans.

Blackstone’s dump and the bands’ exodus are only two of the more dramatic results of the Blackfish Effect. Carl Hiaasen, acclaimed and bestselling author, started his scathing December 14 denouncement of SeaWorld, “Well God Bless Willie Nelson.” And The Malibu Times reported, also on the 18th, that Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School cancelled its annual overnight trip to SeaWorld after “after students and parents complained of unethical treatment of orca whales alleged at the park in the controversial new documentary Blackfish.” That same day, CNN picked up the story and gave it national coverage.

Public relations crisis, indeed.

The Blackfish Effect is not a public relations crisis; it’s a response to a moral crisis. Minister Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, a senior minister with the Unitarian Universalist Church, writes: "As the major religions teach us, we are stewards of this planet and its resources, not dictators who can do whatever we wish in the name of entertainment or profit….If you have not already seen Blackfish, I urge you to see it. It is one of the most shocking and morally significant films of 2013."

As I wrote in Part 1, “Blackfish smacked the glossy distortions of SeaWorld wide open, while David Kirby’s paradigm-shattering book Death at SeaWorld sealed its fate by casting a tremendous spotlight on corporate truths that the company has so-far managed to keep hidden.”

The natural human response to these facts is outrage. Outrage against injustice and suffering. Outrage fueled by empathy…one of our world’s greatest powers. It is the same power that Nelson Mandela tapped, along with Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Jesus, Rosa Parks, Jane Goodall, Mother Theresa, and so many countless others…known and unknown.

Not surprisingly, Kirby had this to say recently after he gave the keynote address at the 2013 World Whale Conference about his inspiration for writing Death at SeaWorld, “It had nothing to do with killer whales,” he said. “It had to do with SeaWorld. It was not only a corporate malfeasance story and a worker-safety story. This is a story about captivity.”

“I’m a journalist and also a human being,” he added. “I know right from wrong. It’s wrong.”

The Blackfish Effect taps the moral outrage of our time: the huge and devastating impact of cultural and corporate domination of the Earth, as well as humans and non-humans alike. The same impact that has allowed for captivity, corruption, lies, subjugation, slavery, and oppression. The same impact that is, right now, wreaking havoc on all of earth’s systems—its oceans, its soils, its people, its animals, and most critically momentous, its climate—is made heartrendingly visible by Blackfish.

And, perhaps key to understanding the Blackfish Effect itself, it gives the global public a way to act. A place to put their outrage. Something they can sink their teeth into, and effect actual change in an era when far too many people feel powerless about what is happening to their world. Change, which—as evidenced by the Blackfish Effect—is happening. And happening explosively! Once people see what they can do, and are motivated by why they want to do it, Blackfishwill only be the beginning of a massive dismantling of corporate and cultural domination. No wonder it set off a firestorm.

And like so many other troubled, broken, deeply out-of-balance systems in the world, there are solutions already in place to respond to the Blackfish Effect. Solutions that will shift corporations and culture away from systemic brutality and towards the much needed higher-order capacity of humanity: global empathy. In A Win-win solution for captive orcas and marine theme parks, Naomi A. Rose, Ph.D., details a robust, scientifically-sound, and undeniably sane response to the concerns raised by Blackfish. A response that encourages sea parks to become more like a sanctuaries and less like a circuses. Rose is a, "marine mammal scientist and part of a team working with Merlin Entertainments Group to create the first sanctuary for captive bottlenose dolphins."

Meanwhile, similarly sound proposals are in place to retire some of the oldest orcas in captivity to their families—families whom researchers know on sight. Lolita, for instance. And Morgan. And Corky. (For a reminder the long decades these animals have endured their existence, watch this 1993 ABC Nightline segment on Corky, who hears a recording of her family after decades away from them.)

These solutions simply need to be adopted. If the fiery trajectory of the Blackfish Effect continues, it may be that the true meaning of Christmas will find its way to captive cetaceans sooner than we think…but never soon enough.

Because the fact of the matter is, Earth is the real sea world. And whales belong in Earth's seas. Not a corporation's.

A note on comments: I read and dearly appreciate every comment. I rarely respond in honor of devoting my time to writing, family, and community. Your comments are important to me, and may inspire future posts. If comments are disrespectful of basic and established science, civil discourse, or kindness, I will remove them.

I would have to agree with much of the article, in that the natural response is outrage and SeaWorld's treatment of orca's is unethical. However, I get the feeling that the article is trending towards "animals are equal to humans", and this has dangerous implications.

What an AWESOME read. This is so beautifully written and brought tears to my eyes, tears of .... hope. Feeling warm inside knowing that someone really gets how I feel about our world.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart :)

That assumption is foolish and paranoid. Humans have no right to proclaim moral superiority when their choices are sometimes by greed and simple savagery. Humans have a smaller brain capacity in the emotional areas. Human provide the world with crack babies, traditional tortures that are accepted as culture (the despicable and morally bankrupt garbage passed off as tradition in Spain of coating a bulls horns and head with creosote and tar and setting it ablaze to agonizingly burn the animal for hours as it runs around bellowing in agony) and genocide of made up sillinesses of tribalism and beliefs in extreme systems of religion. Animals do NONE of this.

The fear that people have of acknowledging that Animals are equal in any way is usually based on the religious arrogance about God Image and duplication of form. Afterall... who would want to go to a church where are giant platypus was rendered as a Supreme Being?

In terms of sharing this planet - we are equals and need each other, even if it is for, for humans, the mere chance to observe a creature and have the opportunity for enlightenment that it provides. When humans can fly, breathe underwater, lift 100 times our own weight, find our own lost children, and use sonar in our bodies to find out way about.. then please tell me about human superiority.

Emotional states and morality are two different subjects. Just because "some" people make bad decisions that are unethical, doesn't mean it's the fault of everyone. There is a ton of brutality and "evil" in the animal kingdom. However, animals are animals and people are people. Animals may in some ways be physically superior but this still doesn't have to do with morality. What is good exactly anyways? What makes something evil? If something's harmed? But if there's no God and no eternal, definite punishment for someone's evil actions it doesn't matter.

Surely we as humans have a conscience (a child generally knows right from wrong more so than an adult....)? How would you feel if the women near and dear to you were brutally gang raped? If the children near to you were kidnapped and sold into slavery? Would there also be no need to punish the perpetrator because there isn't any such thing as right or wrong? Or because 'punishment for someone's evil actions doesn't matter'?

I absolutely agree with you that such a person should be punished. However, from the evolutionary or atheist perspective they didn't really do anything wrong. In the mind of the person doing such things, what they do is perfectly right. From their perspective what did they do wrong, they enjoyed it? It is only when there is a moral higher Law Giver that we get definitive morality.

Rachel, I just read Part 2 of the Black Fish Effect and you are spot on with clarity as to how the "world" is taking a firm hold about the way captive cetaceans are treated. SeaWorld Executives I am sure are concerned about the future of their business model as it currently exists. They can deny, they can fight but they will never stop the momentum of the public - and their love of animals. There are millions of people who wish to see that the Orcas and other mammals be released back into their native habitat very soon. This issue is not going away lightly.

Seriously, is this psychology-related? I'm all for animal rights, but this is just propaganda and totally out of place. And like the third idiotic PT article I've seen in the past three days. Go ahead and delete my post, though, because goodness knows we don't want to disturb the pristine groupthink being cultivated in the comments section.

Your comment is self contradictory...you ask what this has to do with psychology (I assume you mean human)and then in the next breath, you say you "don't want to disturb the pristine groupthink being cultivated" which sounds very much like human psychology in action....
Why would your post be deleted? Not everyone is as insecure as you appear to be....it's called projection....

Humans are moral agents; aside from babies and mentally challenged people, we have the capability to know right from wrong, and therefore have a responsibility to not harm others (humans and non-human animals alike). Nature is (extremely) cruel in many instances, but we must understand that nonhuman animals are amoral; they are acting out of instinct to survive. No animal belongs in captivity, especially for entertainment or profit; that is slavery Captivity is inherently cruel in that aspect. We will never have peace as long as we are exploiting others.

Many artists joined the early Peace Movement to protect human rights in human battles and hopefully this will be the beginning of a new Peace Movement for animal rights challenged by destructive industries.
In so doing, we must address all aspects of forms of suppression. Look at the orca with the Christmas reef around the dorsal fin that accompanies this article. It is rather characteristic of the SeaWorld/aquarium industry portrayal of sentient creatures as cartoon characters. Their images treat them as captives. Dressing them up, kissing them, making them jump through hoops, riding them, etc. is all part of the brainwashing.
More and more people are moving away from this form of exploitive imagery and respecting how wildlife exists as them in the wild. There are now numerous bans on circus animal tricks too. The comparison of live imprisoned to live in the wild brings a clearer freedom message.
Recently I raised this issue with some whale watch companies using an orca caricature wearing a Santa hat. Hopefully, with Blackfish and other campaigns all will become enlighten that even the “fun” images are not fun for captive dolphins. Then we can put an end to speciesism.